The BVIT is a visible photon counting detector mounted on the 10m Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) that is designed to provide observers with very high time-resolution photometric imaging observations of astronomical objects. The instrument, which is capable of recording photon events with a precision of 25 nano-seconds, is (as of January 2013) a general-user facility instrument on SALT. A short description of BVIT can be found on the SALT instruments website, but seriously interested users should use this Berkeley web-site for the most updated details.

The BVIT instrument has a field of view of ~ 1.9 arc minutes on the sky and is capable of recording imaging data in B, V, R or H-alpha filter bands. Typically, sources of visible magnitude in the range V = 12.0 to 20.0 can be observed at high time-resolution. The BVIT does NOT provide high precision absolute photometry, but by observing nearby standard stars a flux intensity relative precision of ~ 5% can typically be obtained. Every detected photon is assigned a time of arrival and a (x,y) position on the detector, which allows an observer a high degree of post-acquisition data analysis flexibility.

Potential targets that are highly suited to BVIT visible observations are flare stars, pulsars, stellar transits & occultations, X-ray transients, AM CVn stars and magnetic cataclysmic variables (polars). Interested potential users of this instrument should contact either Dr. Barry Welsh (bwelsh@ssl.berkeley.edu) at UC Berkeley or Dr. David Buckley at SALT (dibnob@saao.ac.za). New users of BVIT will require some training by qualified SALT staff in the use of the instrument.